Free When You Are Mine by Kennedy Ryan Page B

made a belated reappearance.
    “Oh, gosh.” She scooted back to put distance between them, and then slid off the bed altogether.
    “Um, that was bad. It was…an accident.” Her hand covered the throbbing fullness of her mouth.
    “It’s an accident when cars collide.” The remnants of desire hoarsened Walsh’s voice. “When lips collide it’s a kiss. That wasn’t an accident, and we need to talk about it.”
    “No, we don’t.” She fumbled through rebuttoning her jacket, fingers shaking. She closed her eyes for a few erratic heartbeats, struggling to rein in her body’s response. She was a running engine slowly cooling down. “We have to forget that happened. It was…Iyani, and we were comforting each other, and the emotions got out of control and…misplaced.”
    “Is that how you’ll explain it to Cam?”
    “Cam!” Panic expelled the name from her mouth with the report of a bullet. “You absolutely cannot tell Cam. He wouldn’t understand.”
    “I wouldn’t, either.” He stretched out one arm to pull her to him by the front of her jacket.
    “No, Walsh.” The words stilled in her throat when she realized he was simply redoing the buttons she had misfastened in her clumsy rush. “Oh, thanks.”
    “So, you don’t plan to tell Cam?” Walsh’s hand fell away, his mouth a straight and narrow line. His fist clenched on his knee, making his calm tone a lie. His eyes never strayed from her cowboy boots.
    “No, and neither can you. Look at me.”
    He met her eyes head on.
    “Neither can you, Walsh.” That bore repeating. “Cam seems mild-mannered, but he’s so…”
    “Possessive?” He paired the word with a frown.
    “I guess, but most of all because it would hurt him unnecessarily. You have to see that.”
    “Do I?” A skeptical brow lifted. “I don’t think that’s the right way to handle it. I think we should be honest with Cam and with ourselves.”
    “What do you mean by ‘with ourselves’?”
    “Kerris, I can’t promise it won’t happen again.” His voice was sandpaper. Rough. Abrasive. “This is serious. Cam’s asked you to marry him.”
    “And you don’t think I should? Is that it? Am I not good enough for Cam?”
    “What?” A storm cloud gathered on his face. “I never said that. I don’t think that. Don’t try to smokescreen me by putting words in my mouth. If you marry Cam, and this doesn’t go away…”
    “What doesn’t go away?” She directed the soft words to her boots, unable to meet his still-steaming eyes.
    He lifted her chin with one thumb, caressing the line of her jaw with his index finger.
    “Kerris, can you deny there’s something between us?”
    “An attraction?”
    “Okay, if that’s what you want to call it, yeah. An attraction.”
    “Walsh, you’re an attractive guy. These were difficult, emotional circumstances, and we got carried away.”
    “I don’t know. I just…”
    “Do you love Cam?” she asked, stowing her emotions behind an impassive face. Walsh’s friendship with Cam was her trump card. Maybe her only card.
    “Of course. You know he’s the brother I never had.”
    “Do you want to put a strain on that relationship over a kiss that meant nothing?” She poured all her nervousness into the fingers plucking at her dress, but kept her face placid.
    “Nothing?” His narrowed eyes locked on hers. “You’re telling me what just happened meant nothing to you?”
    “That’s exactly what I’m telling you.” She nodded vigorously, one long braid slithering over her shoulder.
    “Then you’re right. There’s nothing to tell.”
    “Great.”
    “Right.”
    “Okay.”
    “Okay.”
    “All right.” She shifted her weight from one boot to the other. “I’m gonna go then.”
    She headed toward the door, stopping at the sight of Iyani’s brightly colored papers taped to the wall by the light switch. She had drawn herself between Kerris and Walsh, holding their hands. Kerris looked back over her shoulder at Walsh. He sat